Plastic eye



Dec. 18, 1945. 5. GALESK; 2,391,305

PLASTIC EYE Filed April 18, 1944 E922. JzTyJEf .5 (327 mi 7 a Maya-Z4 Patented Dec. 18, 1945 UNITE-D A s'rATEs PATENT OFl-lCE I 2,391,305 Joseph e a e-3 mm, Va. Application April 18, 17:21, N0: 531,811

, 2 Claims. This invention relates to artificial eyes and the method of making and fitting artificial eyes.

Heretofore artificial eyes have been made to order by highly skilled artisans restricted in numbers, making the problem of fitting artificial eyes,

especially where one only is required and that must conform closely with the remaining good eye, one requiring either a personal visit or several of such visits to one of these highly skilled artisans.

An object of the present invention is to provide an artificial eye of composite structure which can !be assembled from a relatively few standard elements by any oculist, optometrist, or technician capable of fitting stock artificial eyes to secure for his. patient or customer a made-toorder eye equal in appearance to expertly made and fitted custom-made eyes.

Another object of the invention is to provide an artificial eye superior to glass eyes in being unbreakable and having superior wearing qualities.

A further object of the invention is to provide a method for the manufacture of artificial eyes by means of which oculists and optometrists of ordinary skill can manufacture such eyes in a satisfactory manner as can the highly skilled glass eye makers now engaged in the custom making of artificial eyes.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved artificial eye and method of assembly which will permit an ordinary oculist or optometrist, with a. reasonable number of parts from which selections can be made, to assemble and make an artificial eye as closely resembling the mating natural eye as would be possible only by a few experts under previously known methods.

The invention consists in the novel construction, arrangement and combinations of parts constituting an artificial eye and the method and process of making and fitting such eye as hereinafter more specifically described and claimed.

One sheet of drawings accompanies this specification as part thereof, in which like reference characters indicate like parts throughout.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a blank for use in my improved eye;

Figure 2 is a transverse cross-section through the blank of Figure 1;

' Figure 3 shows the blank of Figure 1' with a hole bored and reamed to receivean iris plug; Figure 4 is atransverse cross-section through the blank of Figure 3; v f

Ill

hole formed in the blank;

Figure 6 is a transverse cross-section through the showing of Figure 5;

Figure '1 is a plan view of the completed eye;

Figure 8 is a transverse cross-sectionthrough the completed eye;

Figure 9 is a transverse cross-section through my improved iris plug;

Figure 10 is a transverse cross-section through a modified form of the iris plug;

Figure 11 is a plan view oi the cornea part; and,

Figure 12 is a transverse cross-section throughthe showing of Figure 11.

In accordance with my invention, it is proposed to use blanks for the body of the eye fonned of plastic material, impervious to all body acids or alkalis, having embodied fast colors to simulate the normal tints of a. human eyeball and marked with minute red veins preferably in hori-.

zontal irregular lines. Similar plastics may be used for the iris and pupil parts, and it is preferred that plastics capable of softening for shaping, at elevated temperatures between 200 and 400 F. and preferably plastics capable of being softened by a solvent, be used, such as will ensure perfect weld joints by means of which the materials of the adjoining surfaces are merged and formed into a unitary part when secured together. It is contemplated that these plastic parts may be selected from known materials ca pable of being joined either by fusion or by so]- vents or cements, as may be desired.

A description of a single artificial eye constructed in accordance with my invention, with reference to the accompanying drawing, is as follows. The blank I is preferably formed as a laminated structure having a main body portion of plastic material and superposed thereon and permanently secured thereto a layer 8 of a transparent, glossy plastic. These blanks will be given a contour suitable for right and left eyes and shaped to a concavo-convexo form as indicated at Figures 1 and 2. The minute veins II will be tinted on the upper surface of the main body portion I and beneath the transparent layer 8 so as to be protected by the latter.

with the blank 01' Figure l, the first step in the manufacture is to mark on the blank the center of what will be the iris part and to bore a hole through the blank as at 2, slightly smaller than the desired size of the iris. The hole 2 is then reamed as at. 3 to bevel the side edges so that the larger and outer diameter of the reamed hole will be the exact diameter of the desired iris.

Iris plugs such as illustrated in Figure 9, made of a similar plastic, are formed as frustro-conical bodies having an axial bore 5 in which is inserted a blank rod 6 to simulate the pupil of the eye. The main body portion 4 of the iris part will be tinted to correspond with the color of the iris desired.

In Figure is shown a modified structure of an iris plug in which the pupil rod 6 is surrounded by a lighter colored cylindrical sheath 9 with a view to modulating the line of cleavage between the pupil part and the body of the iris. The same efiect can be obtained to lesser degree by the use of a solvent cement which will soften and cause the adjacent surfaces of the iris and the pupil plug 6 to merge slightly throughout. It is desirable to avoid a sharp line of cleavage surrounding the pupil to prevent a set or glassy effect.

An iris plug such as illustrated in Figure 9 is positioned in the bored body blank as illustrated in Figures 5 and 6 and secured either by fusion or a solvent cement, with its conical surfaces closely contacting and engaging and merging with the beveled edge of the hole in the body I.

Thereafter,.the portion of the iris plug 4 protruding above the top of the body I is ground off to form a planar surface and on this planar surface is positioned a transparent piano-convex cornea piece 1 of the same or a very slightly-larger diameter than that of the planar upper surface of the iris plug. I

The portion of the plug 4 projecting below the body part is ground off toa concavo shape conforming with and merging into the under concavo surface of the body I.

In connection with eyes of the structure above described, it will be possible for fitters to provide themselves with sets of 120 blanks, more or less, which number, in different shades, shapes, sizes and curved depths, would permit the custom fitting of perhaps 99% of all cases with respect to 'size, shape and shade, and only in rare cases would any-alteration be necessary from such stock blanks. The shades would vary from white, graywhite, slightl yellow, and yellowish, all veined with hairlines to simulate the natural veins of the human eye.

Such a set would also contain 130 iris plugs, more or less, all of different shades, with standardized percentage mixtures of blues, grays and browns of different shades, from which a numor center of the eye.

ber 0t satisfactory color matches could be secured for almost any human eye.

In fitting, thepptometrist or technician would fit the proper blank and select the proper colored iris plug. The diameter of the iris of the natural eye would be secured and the blank marked as with china-marking wax pencils or other means, indicating the exact position desired for the pupil With thisposition or set of the iris (which varies greatly in different cases) marked on the blank, the hole 2 would be bored, and it will be apparent that the frustro-conical shape of the iris plugs 4 adapt them to fit with precision a wide range of holes such as may be dictated by the requirements of each particular case.

As previously indicated, in the completed eye all of the assembled and fitted parts will constitute, in eifect, a unitary and integral member with the adjoining surfaces merged into a homogenous mass with no sharp or set lines of demarkation, but all closely simulating a natural human eye and amounting in the assembly to a practical custom-made eye conforming in all respects to the natural eye serving as a model.

Various materials and modifications in the precise details of construction will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art but all within the scope of the present invention as claimed.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim:

An artificial eye comprising a laminated concavo-convexo body having a tinted and veined opaque lower layer and a transparent glossy upper layer, an iris part extending entirely through the body, a pupil part having a cylindrical sheath of a lighter shade than the pupil, said sheathed pupil extending entirely through the iris part, said body, iris and sheathed pupil parts merged into a homogenous mass, the upper surface of the iris and pupil parts formed planar with a piano-convexo transparent cornea part coextensive with and secured on said planar surface of the iris.

2. Method of making an iris part for an artificial eye comprising forming a conical plug with an axial bore, forming a. cylindrical pupil rod with a cylindrical sheath of lighter shade than that of the rod and securing said sheathed rod in the bore by fusion or a suitable solvent or cement to produce a merging and intermingling of the contacting surface parts.

JOSEPH S. GALESKI. 

